Inovio and GeneOne are developing the Zika vaccine, GLS-5700, with academic collaborators from the US and Canada with whom they have previously collaborated to advance Inovio’s Ebola and MERS vaccines into clinical development.

First identified in Uganda, Zika virus spread to equatorial Asia and over the past two years has rapidly spread through the South Pacific, including Hawaii, and to South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

GeneOne Life Science develops DNA vaccines and its Texas-based VGXI subsidiary manufactured the Zika vaccine, building on experience with the MERS and Ebola vaccines.

Inovio’s president and CEO, Dr Joseph Kim, said: “As of May 2016, 58 countries and territories reported continuing mosquito-borne transmission of the Zika virus; the incidences of viral infection and medical conditions caused by the virus are expanding, not contracting. We plan to dose our first subjects in the next weeks and expect to report phase 1 interim results later this year.”